Complications of childbirth and maternal deaths in Kinshasa hospitals: testimonies from women and their families

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Maternal mortality in Kinshasa is high despite near universal availability of antenatal care and hospital delivery. Possible explanations are poor-quality care and by delays in the uptake of care. There is, however, little information on the circumstances surrounding maternal deaths. This study describes and compares the circumstances of survivors and non survivors of severe obstetric complications.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Semi structured interviews with 208 women who survived their obstetric complication and with the families of 110 women who died were conducted at home by three experienced nurses under the supervision of EK. All the cases were identified from twelve referral hospitals in Kinshasa after admission for a serious acute obstetric complication. Transcriptions of interviews were analysed with N-Vivo 2.0 and some categories were exported to SPSS 14.0 for further quantitative analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Testimonies showed that despite attendance at antenatal care, some women were not aware of or minimized danger signs and did not seek appropriate care. Cost was a problem; 5 deceased and 4 surviving women tried to avoid an expensive caesarean section by delivering in a health centre, although they knew the risk. The majority of surviving mothers (for whom the length of stay was known) had the caesarean section on the day of admission while only about a third of those who died did so. Ten women died before the required caesarean section or blood transfusion could take place because they did not bring the money in time. Negligence and lack of staff competence contributed to the poor quality of care. Interviews revealed that patients and their families were aware of the problem, but often powerless to do anything about it.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings suggest that women with serious obstetric complications have a greater chance of survival in Kinshasa if they have cash, go directly to a functioning referral hospital and have some leverage when dealing with health care staff</p

Evaluating quality of obstetric care in low-resource settings: Building on the literature to design tailor-made evaluation instruments - an illustration in Burkina Faso

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There are many instruments available freely for evaluating obstetric care quality in low-resource settings. However, this profusion can be confusing; moreover, evaluation instruments need to be adapted to local issues. In this article, we present tools we developed to guide the choice of instruments and describe how we used them in Burkina Faso to facilitate the participative development of a locally adapted instrument.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on a literature review, we developed two tools: a conceptual framework and an analysis grid of existing evaluation instruments. Subsequently, we facilitated several sessions with evaluation stakeholders in Burkina Faso. They used the tools to develop a locally adapted evaluation instrument that was subsequently tested in six healthcare facilities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three outputs emerged from this process:</p> <p>1) A comprehensive conceptual framework for the quality of obstetric care, each component of which is a potential criterion for evaluation.</p> <p>2) A grid analyzing 37 instruments for evaluating the quality of obstetric care in low-resource settings. We highlight their key characteristics and describe how the grid can be used to prepare a new evaluation.</p> <p>3) An evaluation instrument adapted to Burkina Faso. We describe the experience of the Burkinabé stakeholders in developing this instrument using the conceptual framework and the analysis grid, while taking into account local realities.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This experience demonstrates how drawing upon existing instruments can inspire and rationalize the process of developing a new, tailor-made instrument. Two tools that came out of this experience can be useful to other teams: a conceptual framework for the quality of obstetric care and an analysis grid of existing evaluation instruments. These provide an easily accessible synthesis of the literature and are useful in integrating it with the context-specific knowledge of local actors, resulting in evaluation instruments that have both scientific and local legitimacy.</p

The clinical relevance of oliguria in the critically ill patient : Analysis of a large observational database

Funding Information: Marc Leone reports receiving consulting fees from Amomed and Aguettant; lecture fees from MSD, Pfizer, Octapharma, 3 M, Aspen, Orion; travel support from LFB; and grant support from PHRC IR and his institution. JLV is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Care. The other authors declare that they have no relevant financial interests. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Urine output is widely used as one of the criteria for the diagnosis and staging of acute renal failure, but few studies have specifically assessed the role of oliguria as a marker of acute renal failure or outcomes in general intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Using a large multinational database, we therefore evaluated the occurrence of oliguria (defined as a urine output 16 years) patients in the ICON audit who had a urine output measurement on the day of admission were included. To investigate the association between oliguria and mortality, we used a multilevel analysis. Results: Of the 8292 patients included, 2050 (24.7%) were oliguric during the first 24 h of admission. Patients with oliguria on admission who had at least one additional 24-h urine output recorded during their ICU stay (n = 1349) were divided into three groups: transient - oliguria resolved within 48 h after the admission day (n = 390 [28.9%]), prolonged - oliguria resolved > 48 h after the admission day (n = 141 [10.5%]), and permanent - oliguria persisting for the whole ICU stay or again present at the end of the ICU stay (n = 818 [60.6%]). ICU and hospital mortality rates were higher in patients with oliguria than in those without, except for patients with transient oliguria who had significantly lower mortality rates than non-oliguric patients. In multilevel analysis, the need for RRT was associated with a significantly higher risk of death (OR = 1.51 [95% CI 1.19-1.91], p = 0.001), but the presence of oliguria on admission was not (OR = 1.14 [95% CI 0.97-1.34], p = 0.103). Conclusions: Oliguria is common in ICU patients and may have a relatively benign nature if only transient. The duration of oliguria and need for RRT are associated with worse outcome.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Mobile Phones, Institutional Quality And Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigates whether mobile phone penetration modulates the effect of different indicators of governance on some indicators of the ease of doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa with data from the period 2000–2012 by employing the Generalised Method of Moments. Three broad concepts of governance are explored: (i) political (comprising voice & accountability and political stability/no violence), (ii) economic (involving government effectiveness and regulation quality) and (iii) institutional (including corruption-control and rule of law). Ten dimensions of entrepreneurship are considered. Two main findings are established with respect to the net effects of the interaction between mobile phones and governance dynamics. They are (1) reduced cost of business start-up procedure, the time to build a warehouse and the time to resolve an insolvency and (2) increased time to enforce a contract, to register a property and to prepare and pay taxes. Implications for theory and policy are discussed. Some of the engaged policy implications include the following. (i) Measures on how to leverage on the potential of mobile phone penetration for entrepreneurship opportunities by addressing challenge of access to and affordability of mobile phones on the one hand and on the other hand, improving on the role of the mobile phone as a participative interface between emerging entrepreneurs and governance. (ii) The relevance of the mobile phone in mitigating information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and government institutions, notably by: reducing government inefficiency (which potentially represents an additional cost to doing business) and decreasing informational rents, bureaucracy and transaction costs

Iron metabolism in BeWo chorion carcinoma cells. Transferrin-mediated uptake and release of iron

Growing human choriocarcinoma BeWo b24 cells contain 1.5 X 10(6) functional cell surface transferrin binding sites and 2.0 X 10(6) intracellular binding sites. These cells rapidly accumulate iron at a rate of 360,000 iron atoms/min/cell. During iron uptake the transferrin and its receptor recycle at least each 19 min. The accumulated iron is released from the BeWo cells at a considerable rate. The time required to release 50% of previously accumulated iron into the extracellular medium is 30 h. This release process is cell line-specific as HeLa cells release very little if any iron. The release of iron by BeWo cells is stimulated by exogenous chelators such as apotransferrin, diethylenetriaminepenta-acetic acid, desferral, and apolactoferrin. The time required to release 50% of the previously accumulated iron into medium supplemented with chelator is 15 h. In the absence of added chelators iron is released as a low molecular weight complex, whereas in the presence of chelator the iron is found complexed to the chelator. Uptake of iron is inhibited by 250 microM primaquine or 2.5 microM monensin. However, the release of iron is not inhibited by these drugs. Intracellular iron is stored bound to ferritin. A model for the release of iron by BeWo cells and its implication for transplacental iron transport is discusse

Multicenter Validation of the cppB Gene as a PCR Target for Detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

The cppB gene is often used as a target for detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by PCR. Using a coded panel of 500 DNA samples, we determined that the cppB gene is missing in 5.8% of N. gonorrhoeae strains, and therefore we consider the cppB gene to be an unsuitable target